Synopsis

A mansion away from the village, which no one lives, is rumored to have a ghost appearing. Hiroshi visits the mansion with his classmates Takurou, Takeshi, and Mika, and gets attacked by a mysterious creature named Ao Oni. Will they be able to get out of the mansion while solving various puzzles, or... will they become crazy and just live in this mansion with an Ao Oni like that?! The daring lives of the four being played by Ao Oni starts now.

I'm kinda disheartened by the overall low scores for this otherwise genius masterwork of comedic fiction. Now I do an extent of ignorance towards the sorce material but from the sounds of it, they made the right choice in making Ao Oni the Animation such a classic comedy anime. Along with the likes of Corpse Party, the amount of thoughtful shock value is exceedingly high. Personally, I laugh at every episode with a huge grin on my face.

Many of the characters reminded me of my wonderful friends, so seeing them get brutally murdered by Ao Oni every week is slightly heart wrenching, but nonetheless a satisfying time. Every character is distinct, what with their own terrib- I mean beautiful designs and interpersonal traits.

Now, if you can read past my sarcasm, I actually think Ao Oni is an underrated masterpiece of comedy. Hey, I laugh at the characters being dismembered on a regular basis... so it can't be all that bad. Right?read more

Ao Oni; a game that I played a couple of years ago and ended up enjoying, albeit nothing amazing or too special. So, when the anime was announced before the start up of this current anime season I was intrigued; how could they possibly adapt such a short story, and one in which features a purple/blue monster that chases you around a mansion? Well the answer was simple cries Studio Deen: DON'T EVEN TRY!

The anime consist of short three minute episodes that are neither funny nor well animated. The anime is clearly trying to go for comedy but it comes across as so strange and bizarre that it feels awkward instead. Most of the time, the jokes they're trying to tell are humorous when out of context, but the presentation is so sloppy and strange, it feels off putting. The comedy feels forced most of the time and unoriginal, so much so, I wonder why they even bothered to make this in the first place. The characters are all boring stereotypes that have no charm or have no chemistry between any of them. The animation is very basic but easy on the eyes. It doesn't look ugly, per say but it's not exactly the worst I've ever seen either.

This show is the equivalent of a "huh, whatever". There is nothing memorable or special about this show at all, even more so considering how much the original popularity for the game has died down and if this show had been airing along side the hype for said game, I could understand why this was made. It may improve in the coming episodes but I highly doubt that. If you REALLY like Ao Oni I may recommend this as you may find some enjoyment but for everyone else, I'd tell you to keep away and don't even bother. Its entire existence is pointless and it serves no purpose, not even to die hard fans of the original game.read more

First of all, if you are coming into this show thinking it's going to be a direct adaptation of the game, you're going to be sorely disappointed. Ao Oni The Animation is certainly a unique show from the same studio that brought us the horror classic Higurashi... and also Pupa. Instead of a direct adaptation, Deen decided to do a black comedy short series.

Story: Since this is a short episode comedy series, there really is no overarching plot to speak of, and the actual plot of each episode ends in the characters dying in some fashion or another. To be fair, there's only so much you can do when your episode length is two minutes.

Art: As you can probably tell by the previews, Deen used a heavily stylized chibi art style for this show, which was a smart move as it compliments the comedic style while contrasting the black comedy. The animation is nothing to write home about. If you're expecting super fluid animation from this series... you're just going to be disappointed.

Sound: Ending is good... that's about all I can say about sound. They did use that stupid sound effect whenever they Ao Oni appears in the game which is a nice touch.

Characters: The characters are all pretty bland if you look at them separately. None of them really have any defining characteristics except for a single trope, with the only exception ironically being the monster itself, the Ao Oni. He's the best character in this show by far, and he doesn't even have any speaking lines.

Enjoyment: Here's where this gets interesting. Ao Oni The Animation relies on black comedy for its humor, which is a rather risky move since black comedy can be rather hit and miss. Luckily for me, I am a fan of black comedy and the first episode had me laughing out loud for quite a while.

Overall: Ao Oni The Animation is definitely a "Your Mileage May Vary" show. I recommend trying out the first episode (It's only three minutes) and seeing if you like that. As for me, I give this show a 6/10.read more

If this anime is horror, then No Game No Life is horror. This is not scary in the slightest and the being tagged is horror is about as misleading as Madoka Magica opening was for so many people who didnt' know what was to come in it.

What I'm trying to say is, this is a comedy.

With all that out of the way, let's focus on the anime itself. It's below average is almost all aspects if you played or watched a let's play of the game it was based off of. If you watched it without the knowledge what the game was like, I can see it being mediocre. However, that is not the case with me and (I'm guessing) the majority of the people who watched this.

For whatever reason, I found the art a bit appealing.

If you're looking for a faithful rendition of the game, you won't find it here.